Copyright © 2021 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1924, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “I left home on the 5th of January for a southern trip.”
He was heading south to San Antonio, Texas, to bid on another Scottish Rite theatre contract; one that he would not get. Regardless, the trip was quite eventful. Moses continued, “I reached St. Louis quite late on the Alton road. Found our connecting line had gone on. Awfully cold and storming badly. Managed to bluff my way onto another train and was fortunate in securing the same berth number. Travelled all the next day on our way to Paris, Texas, where we had to remain overnight. We left Paris early the next morning and arrived in San Antonio at 8:21 in the evening, where I spent several days with my old friend Herbert Barnard. We had quite a good showing at his studio.”
Barnard had quite a reputation in San Antonio and should have been the local favorite, but he was not a Mason. Barnard was well known as a designer and director of outdoor festivals. In 1923, the “Tulsa Tribune” reported, “Barnard stands almost unrivaled in America. Despite the number of years that he has been engaged in scenic decoration, his work displays ever-increasing ingenuity and originality. He builds the floats in keeping with the spirit and nature of the event for which they are designed, and in some of his former connections has produced carnivals and festivals of bewildering lavishness and startling originality” (July 22, 1923).
Unfortunately, they were bidding against Toomey & Volland, another southern studio with quite a reputation. Unlike Barnard, however, Toomey & Volland were well-respected for their Masonic Scenery production.
Moses wrote, “Barnard is really entitled to the contract and I did all I could to throw the work at him with the understanding that our company would be sharer in the profits. We finally got our estimate submitted. It was $38,000.00 Volland took the contract at $26,000.00.” It was a big project -114 drops.
This was a pattern that would continue to plague Moses for the next decade. No matter how he figured the numbers, Moses often came in as the highest bidder, the projects quickly slipping thru his fingertips.
The Scottish Rite Cathedral of San Antonio was completed in 1924 at a cost of $1.5 million.
To be continued…
